Worship Links is a great website with tons of good resources for worship leaders. A few weeks ago they asked me a few questions and today they’ve posted the answers here. Check it out.
(You’ll also get some chocolate chip cookie dunking advice in there as an added bonus.)
Each week, worship leaders are given a fresh opportunity to choose songs to put on people’s lips when they come together on Sunday. In a church with an informal liturgy, the slate is more blank than at a church with a more formal liturgy, but in either case, a worship leader who chooses the songs will look at anywhere from three to ten blank slots that he’s tasked to fill in. Where does he start?
Some weeks it all seems to come together. And some weeks it doesn’t. There’s a lot to think about when choosing songs, and a lot of different voices and influences swirling in our heads, all fighting for the position of greatest influence as we make our choices.
Keys. Tempos. Old. New. Fits with the sermon. Right theology. Gospel-centeredness. Accessible. Singable. Fresh. Not stale. Can we pull it off? Done too recently. Cool. Wordy. The list goes on.
I’ve found it helpful, when looking at a blank slate each week, of thinking about things in terms of the core and an angle. Thinking about choosing songs in this way helps me press the mute button on factors that, at the end of the day, should not impact my responsibility of choosing songs that serve the congregation, or the pause button on factors that need to wait until more things are decided.
Here’s what I mean:
The Core
The core of your service, and thus the core of your songs, every week, should be the proclamation again and again of the good news of the Gospel. The good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ shouldn’t just pop up in a song here or there, or once every couple of months when “In Christ Alone” appears in your set list, or by accident when you happen to put two songs back-to-back that focus on the finished work of Jesus. Every service, every Sunday, and every set list needs to be fundamentally, at its core, centered around the gospel.
An Angle
The angle of your service, and thus the angle of your songs, is different from week to week. This is determined mostly by what scriptures are being read, and what the theme of the message is. I look at the songs that respond to the message (i.e. that come right after it) as being the songs that are most “angled” in their selection (and heavily influenced by reading the sermon transcript, or asking the preacher if he has any recommendations or ideas). These songs are attached to the core (the gospel), but can point to it from a variety of angles. They help your congregation articulate different responses to the preaching of the word. They help highlight different facets of God’s character. They help articulate different (and biblical) expressions of praise, lament, prayer, or proclamation. They bring variety. They aren’t the main course but they complement the main course.
So when you look at a blank slate each week, start with the core. Make sure the main focus is the preaching of the gospel through song. Make sure it’s central, clear, and cohesive. And then think about ways to approach that core through a particular angle, influenced most heavily by the scriptures, but also taking into account other factors (whether there’s communion, baptisms, some sort of presentation, a national event of some significance, or a big day on the church calendar).
Start with substance. Start with getting a grasp of the narrative of your songs. Then you can consider other factors like keys, tempos, etc., to make sure it works musically and makes sense congregationally.
A few years ago I shared some thoughts on how to annoy your sound engineer. They seemed to be helpful to people so I thought I’d share some more. Obviously, you might not want to implement all these suggestions on the same Sunday.
Make him touch your ears
You’re too important to learn how to put your ear monitors in the correct way, or in the correct ear, so make him do it for you. Bonus points if you make him try to figure out how to put your belt pack on without getting sued for harrasment.
Have long rehearsals
Sound engineers have nothing better to do than sit at the console while you rehearse that one song again. They love being trapped there while you figure out what songs to do. They don’t mind a bit not being able to go home and sleep because you’re goofing around. It’s fun for them!
Sing like you’re telling secrets
If you can master the art of singing with a whimpery, yet raspy, yet emotional, yet passionate, yet secret whisper from the inner regions of your soul, your sound engineer will have no trouble at all finding a good place for your vocals in the mix. Bonus points if you choose random moments to sing normally before reverting to the whisper again. It’s hilarious.
Tell him what you think about the mix when you’re on stage
You’re standing on stage. You’re behind the speakers. You can’t actually hear what it sounds like in the room. But go ahead and tell him it sounds like your guitar isn’t loud enough. Keep telling him. Until your guitar sounds loud enough to you. You’ve successfully made him your best friend.
Display your awesomeness
First song: you’re on acoustic. Second song: you’re on accordion. Third song: back on acoustic. Fourth song: floor tom. Fifth song: you’re on banjo (but let’s be serious: you can’t really play banjo, so he should turn it down so no one knows). Sixth song: you’re on electric. Your sound engineer will love you.
Can you do me a favor and give me a bit less hi-hat, and bump up the kick by 2b, and pan the electric to the right, and give me about 6db more acoustic in my left, and give me a bit more reverb on my vocal?
Oh and can you get me a Latte too? OK thanks.
Throw him under the bus
Lets say you get an email from Verna, a long-time member of the church, and she complains that it was too loud on Sunday. What should you do? Blame the sound engineer. You are not responsible for your music. Throw the sound engineer under the bus and go buy yourself another scarf.
Expect him to do eight things at once
1. Run sound. 2. Run monitors. 3. Run projection. 4. Record the sermon. 5. Hand out assisted-listening devices. 6. Control lights. 7. Play the video at the right time. 8. Touch your ears. He’s superman.
Give feedback feedback
He loves when you do this! Hear feedback? Tell him you hear feedback. Try to recreate the feedback by thumping your mic with your pointer finger. Or, better yet, try to fix the feedback by holding the palm of your hand over your mic. Then you might create even worse feedback, in which case you can prove to your sound engineer that you really were hearing feedback. Then he might kill you.
Pretend his first name is “Hey”
All sound engineers have one first name, and it’s “Hey”. Seriously, it’s so convenient. “Hey, can you turn my mic on?” “Hey, can you give me a bit more keyboard?” “Hey, can you bring me my scarf?”
What am I missing (besides my Latte)?
Earlier this week, my church got final word that our long 7+ year legal battle with the Episcopal Church, our former denomination, is over. Completely over. Over over. Stick a fork in it because it’s done over. Even though we had left our former property in May 2012, we had continued our appeals to the Virginia supreme court and then to the United States supreme court, believing that we had a responsibility, particularly to other churches who might not have the same resources as we do, to see it through to the very end. So, we saw it through to the end, and we’re not looking back.
I’ll never forget the Sunday we took the vote in late 2006 to leave our denomination. It was Advent, and as we sang the line from “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that asks God to “bid Thou our sad divisions cease and be Thyself our King of Peace” I looked out and saw grown men, respectable men, Northern Virginian professional and powerful men, with tears in their eyes. They were in my eyes too.
This coming July I will celebrate my ten-year anniversary of coming on staff here. Over seven of those years were marked by a fairly high degree of uncertainty about where God was leading our congregation, whether we’d win or lose a particular case, whether we’d keep or lose our property, where our new offices would be, where we’d worship, whether we keep this or that piece of equipment, etc. It has been a wild ride. There have been low lows and high highs. We’ve had Sundays where I thought the roof was literally going to lift off, and Sundays when I wondered if the Holy Spirit had taken the Sunday off.
I’ve learned some worship leading lessons through these years of never-ending lawsuits.
First, the Gospel is our song. The songs that have resounded the loudest and longest over these seven years have been the songs that declare the good news of Jesus Christ. Whether we’ve been feeling good about ourselves or discouraged about a bad ruling, declaring the power of the Gospel has always tapped into something powerful. Always.
Second, the songs we sings should rest on the sure victory of Jesus, not on our changing circumstances. We won our first court case in April 2008. In our worship service after hearing that good news, we sang “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand…” We lost our second court case in June 2010. In our worship service after hearing that bad news, we sang “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing…”. We lost (big) our third court case in January 2012. In our worship service after hearing that shocking news, we sang “Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne…”. In our final worship service in our old building, we sang “And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me, for I am His, and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ”. We experience changing circumstances but we rest in the victory of our unchanging Savior who was and is worthy of our praise. If we’re singing songs that only “work” if we’re happy and things are going well, then we’re singing the wrong kinds of songs.
Third, people are looking to sing songs that are true. We captured this in our recent live worship album (recorded one year after leaving our former property). People live in an uncertain world, full of harshness, full of law, full of lies, and full of sadness. The faithfulness of God and the power of the Gospel are the source of our joy, our hope, our lives, and our ministry. I’ve never gone wrong choosing songs that help people “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). God knows they need it.
Fourth, comfort is overrated. I almost wish every church and every worship leader could experience what my church has experienced over the last seven years, especially the last two years since we left our building. It has been good for us. Our idols of comfort and convenience have been exposed. Our weaknesses have come out in the light. The dead branches have become more obvious. It’s hard for a church’s muscles to grow when it’s sleeping on the proverbial couch. We’ve been feeling the burn for a while, and it hurts, but it’s good for us in the long run.
Finally, you can’t manufacture the Holy Spirit (but you can try). A lot of worship leaders don’t realize that they spend a lot of time trying to manufacture the Holy Spirit in their services. Whether it’s by trying to recreate something produced on an album, trying to use certain audio or visual effects to produce your prescribed reaction, trying to bring rapid change in a matter of weeks, or turning the worship knob to 11 every week, worship leaders can easily slip into dangerous territory. Honestly, just relax. Choose songs that point people to Jesus, lead them in a heartfelt and humble way, make sure the music and musicians alongside you are as skillful as possible, and let the Holy Spirit do his job. It’s a beautiful thing to behold the Holy Spirit at work in a congregation.
It’s a tragedy when churches deal with lawsuits and litigation. I hope most churches and worship leaders never have to. But whether you’re in court, or a portable church in a basketball gym, or whether you’re nice and comfortable in your own permanent building, never lose sight of what’s really worth singing, who’s really worth singing to, and who’s really the worship leader (it’s not you).
Three months ago my church released our second live worship album, “We Will Proclaim: Live Worship with The Falls Church Anglican”. Since I was in the middle of a few other projects at the time, I never highlighted a few interesting things about the album that I hope encourage and bless you (especially since shipping is free all this week):
First, the order of the songs. We intentionally ordered the whole album in such a way that it progresses like an Anglican church service. The progression of the songs, interspersed with liturgical prayers and creeds, walks through an Anglican service from start to finish.
Second, the arrangements of the songs. We arranged every song in such a way that a volunteer/amateur worship team could play them just as comfortably as a team made up of trained professionals. And except for an added pad here or there, we didn’t go crazy in post-production adding layers and layers of stuff that wasn’t there live.
Third, the keys of the songs. We made sure that every song was in the optimal congregational key. So, for instance, our version of “Jesus Son of God” is in a completely different vocal range than Chris Tomlin’s version.
Fourth, the heart behind the songs. Every single one of these songs is centered around the unchanging faithfulness of Go and the unfailing power of the gospel. This has been our congregation’s anthem for two whole years now of upheaval, inconvenience, and perseverance. Our church is definitely not perfect. My guess is that your church isn’t either. These are songs that an imperfect congregation can belt out to an indescribably glorious God.
Fifth, the liturgy in-between the songs. Our first album, “A Thousand Amens”, has 14 songs in a row. This album also has 14 songs, but has 6 other tracks as well, featuring a scriptural call to worship, Anglican prayers, the Apostles Creed, and a benediction, all woven-in seamlessly, demonstrating how liturgical elements can be incorporated in an intentional, worshipful way, without having to bring the flow of the service to a screeching halt.
Finally, the variety of the songs. We have some hymns, some re-tuned hymns, some new compositions, some current songs that our congregation loves, some current songs that incorporate older hymns/songs (i.e. “Everlasting God” with a verse of “A Mighty Fortress” added in, or “Ten Thousand Reasons” transitioning to “I Exalt Thee”). Some songs are full-on rock. Some songs have a string section. We hope this album models a fearless incorporation of variety, in modern skin, anchored to the past but not weighed down by it.
If you haven’t already purchased “We Will Proclaim”, I think you’d enjoy it if you did. You can download it on iTunes of course, but all this week (the week of March 10th) you can purchase it at www.tfcamusic.org and shipping is free.
Worthily Magnify 